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HR Sta23454321 PDF
HR Sta23454321 PDF
Tony Foale
Foreword
The motorcycle is a complex system that has long defied full analysis. For a very long time,
motorcycle handing was hardly even considered a subject. Engines, whose performance could
be measured in "objective" terms, therefore received the lion's share of development. Engine
development moved rapidly ahead of chassis, suspension, and tires, creating a succession of
design crises that required new thought for their solution. Examples might be Rex McCandless's
twin-loop swingarm chassis of 1950, Tony Mills's wide, belted Dunlop Daytona tire of 1974, and
the present-day elaborations of Antonio Cobas's large-section aluminium twin-beam chassis of
the early 1980s. In each case, motorcycle performance had ceased to advance because of
specific problems that could not be solved by traditional means.
In general, the innovations that have broken these deadlocks have been creations of practical
persons, not of theorists. The role of theory in motorcycle design has, if anything, suffered at the
hands of history, for the strange forkless creations of ELF, Fior, and Bimota have come and gone
without solving any actual problem.
Yet motorcycle performance is at present again deadlocked, with no sunny uplands of easy
progress in sight. As motorcycles lean over farther on their wonderful tires, their suspensions
turn sideways, at a large angle to the bumps they are designed to absorb. As engine and brake
torque is applied, motorcycles short enough to turn quickly, and tall enough for adequate
cornering clearance suddenly lift the front or rear wheel, limiting maximum rates of acceleration
and deceleration. While autos present 100% of the width of their tires to the pavement, the
motorcycle offers only 1/3 of tread width at a time, severely limiting cornering grip. To make
motorcycles steer well, front tires must be of modest section, while rears, to apply engine power,
must be large. With the forward CG position necessary for rapid acceleration, a powerful
motorcycle must therefore overload its small front tire in cornering, while under-using its larger
rear. The result is that as a machine's power increases, its corner speed must decrease.
Racing is the environment in which these problems hurt worst, and from which solutions have
most often come. Racing has, however, evolved from a sport into a conservative business. The
practical men of racing are now too busy loading and unloading their beautifully painted transport
trucks to have much time for innovation. The theoreticians remain, as ever, divorced from
practicality, often ignorant of the real problems motorcycles confront.
Yet the infinite refinement of the piston internal combustion engine did not create the gas turbine -
only a careful consideration of theoretical heat engine cycles could make that leap. Therefore the
practical and theoretical sides need each other - but they have had little dialogue thus far.
This book is a valuable step toward that dialog. Tony Foale's first book was almost entirely
practical, and has been deservedly widely read. He is a man who can control a weld puddle and
twist safety wire. He also knows that refinement within existing thought must ultimately reach a
dead end. This has forced him to learn to walk with one foot upon practicalities and the other
upon theory. This new book is the result. Read on.
The numbers make it impossible to name everyone, but you know who you are – thanks a lot,
you made the job much easier.
Another source of aid came from those who have supplied information, expert proof reading or
contributed ideas for topics without which this book would have been the poorer. This group is
small enough to thank individually and it gives me pleasure to be able to so. They are, in
alphabetical order: